Thai Commerce Ministry urges WTO to secure trade privileges for Thailand

BANGKOK, May 30 (TNA) - Thai Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said Thailand has asked World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy to encourage WTO members to maintain Thailand’s trade privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), reasoning that Thailand is still a developing country. Boonsong said he made the request to the WTO chief during the “High-Level Dialogue on the Global Trading System”, which was held in Bangkok Wednesday. Besides, he said he asked the WTO chief to urge WTO members to relax tariff barriers against Thailand. Meanwhile, the Thai commerce minister said in the first four months of this year, Thai export dropped by as much as 3.9 percent. He attributed the drop to a decline of Thai export to European market, which is suffering from an economic crisis. However, he assessed that Thai export figures should pick up in May and that the country can reach its 15 percent export growth target this year. (TNA)